The Benefits and Limitations of Cooking Healthy

This year I decided to try a bunch of homemade healthy recipes and have blogged about the process of cooking and eating healthy off and on. Monday I tried a limeade pie and substituted fat-free condensed milk for regular and used a reduced-fat graham cracker crust. I swear, you couldn't tell the difference. Mr. Clark never noticed; that pie was da bomb. There's just enough for one more serving tonight. Then the pie's history!

Tuesday, I baked homemade whole wheat banana bread with yogurt and an omega soy and canola oil blend. I got the recipe from Denise Austin, and it wasn't bad. While the texture and flavor were really good (I CAN bake!), it would have tasted better had I used more sugar, white flour and butter. Done my way, I know it would have tasted even better. Oh Well.

Yesterday I tried a heart healthy shrimp gumbo recipe, and used low sodium chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, thyme, and other low sodium/sodium free herbs and seasonings. The recipe only called for a teaspoon of salt for a large pot, so I knew that the gumbo may potentially be bland. Although the gumbo was good, and while the flavors were good, it could have definitely benefited from more salt, so Mr. Clark and I sprinkled just a lil' bit (approx. less than an eight of a teaspoon)in our bowls with rice. If I were to do this recipe again, though, I'd use another can of dice tomatoes and a little bit of tomato sauce to give it more flavor, and at the very least, an nicer and redder color. Still good though.

I think I'll keep each of these recipes around though, especially the pie since you couldn't really tell the difference. With the others, although you could tell the difference, if you weight the benefits associated with eating healthy, you can sacrifice a little bit of extra flavor.